The odyssey of Brazilian soccer players in Ukraine: “A horror; terrible images”

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine caught by surprise the large colony of Brazilian players who play for Ukrainian teams. About 30 play for different clubs in Ukraine. When Russia decided to attack Ukraine all they began an odyssey against the clock to leave the country as soon as possible.

The 13 Brazilians from Shakhtar took refuge with their partners and children in a hotel in Kiev, there were also several compatriots from Dynamo Kiev. “Everything exploded overnight. On Thursday morning we were at home and we started to hear the sound of bombs, fighter planes. It was the beginning of the nightmare,” said Carlos de Pena, a Uruguayan soccer player for Dynamo Kiev. . “We heard explosions all the time. The food was starting to run out. It was hard to keep calm.”said Marlon, Shakhtar’s Brazilian defender.

After a three-day confinement in the Kiev hotel, they decided it was time to leave the country. They made their way to the central station in Kiev, thanks to the security support provided by UEFA and the Ukrainian Football Federation. After a 17-hour trip by train and 15 hours by bus, they managed to reach the Romanian border, from where they could fly to Brazil. “When we left it was very dark, we didn’t know what we were going to find on the way. We traveled at night, when the conflicts are more intense,” says Maycon, a Brazilian from Shakhtar, who made this difficult retirement trip with his parents, his wife and two children.

“The hardest thing is everything we saw on the road, people who died and had nothing to do with this whole situation,” narrated Pedrinho before the media once he stepped on Brazilian territory. “I had my four-month-old daughter in my arms and I just wanted her to be okay. It was horror, terrible images, destroyed cities. It is etched in my mind”, Narrated the Shakhtar attacker still unbelieving. During those three days that they were locked up in the hotel in Kiev, the Brazilian players feared the worst: “Every time I spoke to them, I said goodbye, because I thought it might be the last time I would hear their voice,” Pedro explained. Luckily, the Brazilians from Shakhtar Donetsk have successfully completed their departure from Ukraine.

“Worst Place on Earth”

Talles Brener is a Brazilian who was a member of Rukh Lviv, although he lived in western Ukraine where Russian attacks have not been so intense, he also had to quickly leave the country.“You have to go today”, how much in The Telegraph they told him one morning at the club. He couldn’t believe it.

“The border was about 80 kilometers away, so we thought it would take an hour and a half to get there. We couldn’t have been more naive. We left Lviv around 9 in the evening and only reached the border at 11 in the morning the next day. The traffic was so bad that we had to cover the last 20 kilometers on foot. It was hell because one of us, the Argentinian Fabricio Alvarenga, couldn’t even walk properly: he had torn ligaments in his knee and was on crutches. And on top of that, he also had his baby with him. It was a brutal experience.”

But arriving at the border crossing did not guarantee that they would be in Poland. There they endured a particular three-day hell to get to Poland: “Ukrainian immigration officials kept saying that only women and children would be allowed into Poland. No matter how hard you tried to explain your situation, they just yelled at you. That was the worst place on earth. Aside from a meal of chicken and potatoes, we’d gone so long without a decent meal… After that, we said: ‘We can’t take it anymore, let’s go back to Lviv.’ That’s how desperate we were. We even booked a taxi to meet us at a gas station, but he never showed up. It seemed like we would never be able to get out of that nightmare.”

They were wandering around drowning until selfless help passed them right under their noses: “Then we saw a car with a Brazilian flag. It was Clara, our angel. She is part of a group of Brazilians from neighboring countries called ‘Frente BrazUcra’ who are rescuing to other Brazilians from Ukraine. We got in the car and tried to go through Slovakia first, but the border was too crowded there too. Then we drove to the Hungary and things looked much better. Although we had to wait 15 hours, finally, we managed to leave Ukraine on Monday.”narrates the Rukh Lviv midfielder once he is safely away from Ukrainian territory.